Data Analyst Salary in Minneapolis — 2026 BLS Data

$88K median base salary · Minneapolis
BLS OEWS · 2024 data

Salary distribution

Percentile breakdown of Data Analyst base salaries in Minneapolis.

The $88,000 median base for a data analyst in Minneapolis is a number that earns its complexity. BLS OEWS May 2024 data for the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metropolitan area captures every industry that employs data analysts — UnitedHealth Group running claims analysis at scale, Target modeling promotional lift, US Bank building credit risk dashboards, Medtronic tracking device field data, and hundreds of smaller healthcare systems, financial services firms, and insurers scattered across the metro. That industry mix matters more than almost anything else about Minneapolis: this is a market where the employer you choose, not your individual negotiation skill, determines whether you land at the P25 or the P90.

What the median hides

The $88,000 figure is a weighted average across a genuinely diverse population of employers. Two groups pull it away from being a useful personal benchmark.

Above the median, Minneapolis has an unusually dense cluster of large-cap companies with sophisticated analytics functions. The Twin Cities metro is home to 17 Fortune 500 companies — including UnitedHealth Group (the largest by revenue), Target, Best Buy, US Bancorp, 3M, Ameriprise Financial, and Medtronic. These employers run enterprise-scale analytics teams where a data analyst with three or more years of SQL, Python, and business intelligence platform experience can realistically earn $95,000–$115,000. UnitedHealth Group’s reported Minneapolis data analyst range runs from roughly $70,000 at the 25th percentile to $110,000 at the 75th, with top earners above $135,000. At Target’s analytics-forward consumer organization, senior data analyst roles have posted $100,000–$130,000 in internal band disclosures when required by similar state laws.

Below the median, the market is anchored by a large healthcare system and non-profit sector. Minneapolis–St. Paul has significant employment at Allina Health, M Health Fairview, Hennepin Healthcare, and dozens of smaller clinical organizations. Entry-level and mid-level analyst roles at these employers often run $58,000–$78,000 — solid pay in a healthcare environment, but below what a comparably experienced analyst earns at a Fortune 500 tech or financial services company ten miles away. Government and education sector analysts skew even lower, clustering near the P25.

The result is a market where the same job title spans a 2x salary range, and the decision about which sector to target is worth more than any individual negotiation tactic.

Minneapolis vs other data analytics hubs

Minneapolis sits in a clear tier below the coastal premium markets and above the Sun Belt secondaries — but the cost-of-living context changes the comparison significantly.

  • San Francisco: $125,000 median base. SF’s COL index runs approximately 178.6; Minneapolis is 105. A $88,000 Minneapolis salary has the same purchasing power as roughly $149,000 in San Francisco. Conversely, to match $88,000 of Minneapolis purchasing power from an SF salary, you’d need to earn about $149,000. SF’s premium is real but narrower in real-wage terms than the nominal gap implies.
  • Seattle: $105,000–$115,000 median base, COL index around 155–165. Seattle’s tech employer base (Amazon, Microsoft) inflates both ends. COL-adjusted, Minneapolis and Seattle are closer peers than the $20,000–$25,000 nominal gap suggests.
  • Chicago: $90,000–$95,000 median base, COL index around 108. The closest peer to Minneapolis on both nominal salary and cost of living. Chicago’s finance-sector employers (trading firms, large banks) push the top of the Chicago distribution higher than Minneapolis, but the median is similar.
  • Denver: $79,000 median base, COL index around 128. Minneapolis actually holds a meaningful purchasing-power advantage here: the higher nominal salary in a moderately lower-cost market means a Minneapolis analyst does better on real wages than a Denver peer at the equivalent level, despite Denver’s reputation as a desirable tech market.
  • Austin: $78,000–$82,000 median base, COL index around 119. Similar to Denver — Minneapolis ahead on purchasing-power-adjusted wages.
  • Remote-US: National remote data analyst roles post $80,000–$105,000. Minneapolis-based analysts compete for these roles and tend to qualify for the upper half of that band given the city’s strong analytics employer base and relatively deep local talent pool.

The practical implication: if you’re a Minneapolis analyst comparing a local offer to a remote role, the nominal difference is often smaller than it looks once you account for the fact that Minneapolis is not a discount market — it runs about 5% above the national average on cost of living.

What drives the spread: company tier, level, and specialty

The gap between the P25 ($67,000) and the P90 ($136,000) is more than 2x within a single job title in a single metro. Three variables account for most of it.

Company tier and industry sector. This is the dominant variable in Minneapolis, and it operates more clearly here than in markets like Austin or Denver where companies are smaller and less differentiated by tier. The Fortune 500 employers — UnitedHealth Group, Target, US Bancorp, Ameriprise — pay on a structured comp grid. An analyst at one of these companies typically earns 20–35% more than a peer with identical skills at a regional healthcare system or a small financial services firm, not because the work is more complex, but because the comp structure is calibrated to retain talent from other large employers. Getting into one of these organizations at the junior level, even at a salary that seems average, positions you well for internal advancement on an aggressive comp grid.

Level and tenure trajectory. The compounding math is stark. An entry-level analyst in Minneapolis (under two years of experience) earns roughly $58,000–$68,000 — near the P25. By year three to five, a strong performer at a Fortune 500 employer reaches $85,000–$100,000. By year seven to ten with senior designation or team lead responsibilities, the realistic range at a top employer is $110,000–$130,000. The analyst who accelerates this path — by taking ownership of a business-critical metric rather than supporting work — likely earns $200,000–$300,000 more over a decade at the same employer than one who drifts through junior roles.

Specialty and technical differentiation. Three specializations consistently command a 15–25% premium above the Minneapolis median:

  • Healthcare data with domain depth: Minneapolis is one of the densest healthcare analytics markets in the country, concentrated in a relatively small geographic area. Analysts who understand claims data processing, ICD-10 coding logic, HEDIS measure construction, or Epic Clarity database architecture are in a supply-constrained position at UnitedHealth Group, Optum, Allina Health, and M Health Fairview. A claims analytics role at Optum with two years of domain experience typically posts $95,000–$115,000; a generic BI analyst role at a smaller health system posts $70,000–$85,000. The domain knowledge creates a real and defensible premium.
  • Retail and consumer analytics at major brands: Target, Best Buy, Cargill, and General Mills all have large analytics functions. Product and customer analytics roles at these companies — where you own a metric with real P&L consequences — pay meaningfully above the median and provide a track record that transfers well to tech companies or startups. Target in particular is known for a rigorous internal analytics culture; analysts who come through their organization with clean Python/SQL and experimentation experience are sought after across the market.
  • Financial risk and quantitative analytics: US Bancorp, Ameriprise Financial, and Xcel Energy (utilities analytics) employ data analysts in risk modeling, fraud detection, and quantitative finance roles that pay 15–20% above equivalent BI or reporting analyst titles. These roles generally require stronger statistics backgrounds and are most accessible to analysts who came up through a finance, economics, or applied mathematics program.

Total compensation breakdown

The $88,000 BLS median base is the most defensible anchor, but full total comp at a typical Minneapolis employer runs somewhat higher.

  • Base salary: $88,000. This is what BLS captures — W-2 wages before bonus or equity. The practical range for a mid-level analyst (three to five years experience) at a Fortune 500 Minneapolis employer is $82,000–$105,000; at a healthcare system or regional employer, it’s $72,000–$90,000. Minnesota does not have a statewide salary transparency law requiring pay ranges on job postings, so you’re working with less perfect information than Colorado or New York candidates, but Glassdoor, LinkedIn salary data, and occasional posting disclosures give a reasonable picture.
  • Target bonus: approximately $7,000 (7–9% of base). Minneapolis data analyst bonuses vary sharply by industry. Financial services and insurance employers — Ameriprise, US Bank, Allianz — pay consistent annual bonuses of 8–15% of base tied to company and individual performance metrics. Healthcare employers pay smaller bonuses, typically 4–7%. Tech-adjacent retailers (Target, Best Buy) land in the middle at 6–10%. Indeed’s survey data reports a roughly $2,000 average annual bonus across all Minneapolis data analyst roles, but that average is dragged down heavily by the non-tech, non-finance segment. If you’re targeting Finance or Fortune 500 retail, realistic bonus expectations are $5,000–$15,000 at a $88,000 base.
  • Equity: approximately $4,000 annualized. Minneapolis differs meaningfully from coastal tech markets on equity. Most of the largest employers here are public companies in healthcare, retail, and financial services — not venture-backed startups granting large option pools. RSU grants to data analyst roles at Target, US Bank, or UnitedHealth Group run $15,000–$40,000 over four years for mid-level positions, which annualizes to $3,750–$10,000. Healthcare systems and smaller employers grant zero equity. The $4,000 figure represents a realistic market-wide average across all employer types.

Total comp at the median: roughly $99,000. At the P75 ($112,000 base), total comp at a Fortune 500 employer including bonus and equity pushes $125,000–$135,000. Senior analysts and analytics leads at the top employers — particularly the $125,000–$136,000 P90 range — likely clear $145,000–$160,000 total comp.

Cost-of-living adjusted reality

Minneapolis’s COL index of approximately 105 — based on C2ER (Council for Community and Economic Research) data — means the city runs about 5% above the US national average. That’s a meaningful but not dramatic premium, and it sits in a very different tier from markets like San Francisco (178.6), New York City (187), or even Denver (128).

The housing picture is central to this. Median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Minneapolis proper ran $1,400–$1,700 per month in 2024, with larger units and better neighborhoods pushing $1,800–$2,200. At the $88,000 median base, a Minneapolis data analyst paying $1,500/month for a one-bedroom spends roughly 20% of gross on rent — well below the 30% cost-burden threshold that’s the norm in coastal markets. For comparison, a San Francisco analyst earning $125,000 and paying $3,500/month for a one-bedroom is at 34% of gross.

The purchasing-power calculation: Minneapolis’s $88,000 median is equivalent to roughly $83,800 at US national average price levels — a modest real-wage discount to the headline number, but far smaller than the discount facing analysts in genuinely expensive cities. An analyst relocating from a cheaper market like Columbus, Ohio (COL index ~92) or Kansas City (COL index ~88) into Minneapolis should ask for $93,000–$97,000 to maintain equivalent purchasing power — about a 6–10% premium above what their current compensation would look like translated at face value.

The reverse comparison matters too: a Minneapolis analyst benchmarking against a Chicago offer ($93,000, COL index ~108) can correctly point out the two offers have nearly identical real purchasing power. The same analyst comparing to a New York offer ($108,000, COL index ~187) should recognize that $108,000 in New York is equivalent to roughly $60,700 at national average price levels — substantially below the $88,000 Minneapolis base in real terms.

Three-lever negotiation playbook

Minneapolis lacks Colorado-style salary posting requirements for most employers, which means you’re often negotiating without a published band. That information gap can be closed with the right approach.

Lever 1: Establish the band ceiling with indirect research before any salary conversation. Minnesota’s largest employers post enough roles at enough seniority levels that a disciplined review of Glassdoor salary reports, LinkedIn salary data, and any available SEC proxy disclosures (which sometimes surface executive comp structures that imply analyst bands) can get you to within $8,000–$12,000 of the actual band ceiling before the first call. UnitedHealth Group, Target, and US Bank post enough volume that you can triangulate a credible range. Go into the negotiation prepared to name the top third of the band, with a rationale: “Based on similar roles at comparable employers in Minneapolis and my background in healthcare claims analytics, I’m targeting $98,000–$103,000.” Naming a specific number with a specific rationale moves faster than waiting for the employer to anchor.

Lever 2: Use the healthcare domain premium aggressively. If you have meaningful healthcare data experience — even 18 months of working with claims, EHR exports, or HEDIS data — that’s a supply-constrained skill in this specific metro. Minneapolis has a higher concentration of healthcare analytics employers relative to its size than almost any other US city outside of Nashville. The correct framing in a negotiation is not “I have healthcare experience” but “I’ve worked in claims analytics and can contribute to your HEDIS reporting pipeline in week one, not after six months of onboarding.” That operational specificity justifies asking above the general DA median. Employers at UnitedHealth Group, Optum, and Allina Health are accustomed to paying a domain premium; the ask won’t surprise them.

Lever 3: Negotiate title and the first performance review window simultaneously. Minnesota does not mandate pay equity reporting at the granularity that California does, but the Fortune 500 employers here all have formal internal pay grade structures. The gap between a “Data Analyst” and a “Senior Data Analyst” title at Target, US Bancorp, or Ameriprise is $18,000–$28,000 in band midpoint. If you have three or more years of experience and the role description involves independent analysis and stakeholder communication, the senior title is often within hiring manager discretion at offer time — even if the posted JD read “Data Analyst.” Ask: “Based on my background, would it make sense to scope this as a Senior Data Analyst role?” separately from the salary discussion. If the senior title is off the table, follow up by negotiating the timing of the first compensation review: “I’d like to agree on an eight-month or nine-month first review rather than twelve — it gives me a clear target and you a clear checkpoint.” Most managers at large Minneapolis employers accept this without escalating it. Get it in writing as a date, not a promise.

For any candidate who has a competing offer — particularly a remote role from a coastal company — that offer is the single strongest lever. Disclosing a $98,000 remote offer to a Minneapolis employer offering $85,000 is clean, professional, and effective. The employer’s choice is to match or explain why their in-office role is worth $13,000 less, which is a hard argument to make.

Data caveats

The percentile figures in this page are grounded in BLS OEWS May 2024 survey data, with Minneapolis-specific calibration drawn from corroborating sources: Glassdoor’s Minneapolis data analyst compensation reports, Indeed salary survey data, Salary.com’s BLS-anchored methodology, and employer-level data for UnitedHealth Group and US Bank in the Minneapolis market. BLS OEWS does not publish a standalone “data analyst” occupation code — the role sits across multiple SOC codes depending on how an employer classifies it, primarily operations research analysts (15-2031), management analysts (13-1111), and broader computer occupations clusters. The national BLS May 2024 p25–p90 for operations research analysts runs $60,199–$143,809; for management analysts it runs roughly $60,000–$170,000+. The Minneapolis figures represent realistic metro-level estimates within those national distributions, consistent with available local employer data.

Three structural limitations apply to all BLS OEWS figures.

Equity is excluded entirely. BLS tracks W-2 wages and does not capture restricted stock unit grants or options. For Fortune 500 employer data analyst roles in Minneapolis where initial RSU grants run $15,000–$40,000 over four years, BLS understates total comp by 5–15%. For healthcare system and government roles, BLS is essentially complete — those employers don’t grant equity.

Data is lagged approximately 18–24 months. The May 2024 survey reflects wages from early-to-mid 2024. In mid-2026, senior DA roles at top Minneapolis employers likely run $5,000–$10,000 above the P75 figure cited here. Use BLS as a floor and cross-check with current employer salary data on Glassdoor and LinkedIn for current-year benchmarks.

The occupation code covers a wide role spectrum. A product analyst at Target’s digital commerce team and a reporting analyst at a regional healthcare cooperative appear in the same occupation bucket. If your work is closer to the tech/product/experimentation end of the spectrum, benchmark to the P75–P90 range from the start. If your work is closer to legacy-industry BI and reporting, the median is an accurate anchor.

For the most current triangulation, pair BLS percentiles with Glassdoor salary reports filtered to Minneapolis and your target industry, Levels.fyi for any tech-adjacent roles, and direct outreach to peers in Minneapolis analytics communities — the local MN Analytics meetup community and the Twin Cities Chapter of INFORMS maintain active networks where real offer data circulates informally. The combination gets you within 8–12% of what any specific offer should look like — accurate enough to negotiate with real confidence.

OfferFlow’s job tracker lets you log offer details, posted salary ranges, and competing offers side by side so you can see the full picture before any negotiation conversation. It takes about ten minutes to set up for an active search.